Why were the tenement apartments crowded?
1 Answer
Lack of money
Explanation:
The early 20th Century immigrants for the most part arrived without money. They moved into an apartment and would immediately sublet as much space as they could. They did this because their wages were low and unreliable. Most immigrants took jobs in factories which had virtually no labor laws. People were fired for being a minute late, literally. They were affected by seasonal changes in manufacturing.
In 1910 the average factory working man earned a mere $7 a week, a woman $5 a week and a child (12-16) $4 a week.
Immigrants being largely unskilled labor were not unionized as the AFL would only take skilled labor and only men, no women. Immigrants were powerless to strike or complain about wages, working conditions, etc. The mill owners knew this and took advantage of them by paying them starvation wages. And so in order to survive the immigrants only recourse was to band together in the tenements and help one another that way.
In a study I did of the tenements in Lawrence Massachusetts in 1910 I found 3-story tenements with 75 or more people living in the one building. Today, that same building would be deemed overcrowded with 25 people.
